Tartarus
by Theonewhodidnotdoit
Summary: A strange thing happens to Pit at a celebratory banquet, setting in motion a chain of events that could threaten the entire multiverse. The Titans are rising. Tartarus has been breached. PitxSamus. Sequel to Winging It. Darker and plottier.


**Tartarus Chapter 1**

**Hello, dear readers, and welcome to the story! Whether you're here from Winging It or a completely new reader, welcome all the same! I'll be your writer for this interlude. The exits are located at the back button, the power switch for your device and...**

**Dammit, I shouldn't write on planes. **

**Anyway! Hope you enjoy this! **

**Note for those of you who haven't read WI: It was just a drabbley sort of thing. Humour, slightly cringey romance. The works. This one is a bit more serious and properly defined. All you need to know is that Pit and Samus hook up at their second tournament together. Go read it if you want to. Please. ;) Plus, it's taken for granted that there will be spoilers for both character's most recent games, is it not? Good.**

**Also, this story is set in the same universe as my Souls of Steel Trilogy. It'll have pretty much no effect on the plot of that or this fic, but references will be made. You have been warned. **

"Come on, Pit, get over here!"

"Sorry Lady Palutena! Just a second!"

The green-haired goddess huffed and tapped her foot. She stood in the central chamber of her temple in Skyworld, waiting for her Captain of the Guard to fix his hair. Today was the day before the long-awaited Pantheonic Banquet, an event held once every seven years, alternating between the domains of various gods every time. This time it was her turn, and everything so far had run perfectly. She had verified her Divinipedia sources for all the proper traditions and etiquette. She had made sure the food wouldn't come to life, like that incident a year ago. She had gotten her hands on every piece of cutlery that humans had come up with so far, even if she had had to melt down a few of the centurion's weapons to do it. There was just one thing to go.

"I'm here! I'm here!" The Captain himself fluttered in, chestnut hair impeccably tousled. He was indeed ready.

"Excellent! Now, let's get started. Here are the clothes." She picked up a bag at her feet, handing it to the angel. "Are you ready to go and see your girlfriend?" She grinned. Pit huffed, pouting, but it was all in jest. He knew she didn't mean anything by the teasing, in fact she was ecstatic when she first found out about it. Her little baby angel, all grown up and with a lady. Of course, it was a long distance relationship. A very long distance relationship. As in, different universes.

Pit and his lady friend, a bounty hunter by the name of Samus Aran, had met at an interdimensional fighting tournament, hosted by a large, disembodied glove and his psychotic brother. Pit was as sweet as they come, but he wasn't exactly opposed to violence. In fact, he was practically her personal hitman. Or, as it was once put, walking munitions depot. It was good he had found someone who liked killing evil things as much as he did. And said lady was about to be picked up to come to a rather special banquet.

Pit adjusted his head wreath with one hand, the other carrying the bag. He looked nervous. He'd talked to Samus several times over the last month since the tournament, but never actually gone to visit in person. She'd been unusually busy over the short space of time, frustrating her, as she had told him, no end. Naturally, he was nervous. Palutena bent down, pinching his cheek and smiling.

"You've got nothing to worry about, Pit. Trust me. Now, go get her." He smiled back, all but a hint of his nervousness gone.

"Thanks, Lady Palutena." She nodded and turned away, walking up the stairs at the end of the room to her official magic-doing/mission-directing/speech-making position. She picked up her staff and shield, and closed her eyes, concentrating.

"Power of Dimensional Bridging!" She shouted, throwing a bolt of light from the end of her staff. It soared over Pit's head, stopping in the centre of the long hall, exploding into a shimmering oval of blue, the edge barely cresting the floor, its light reflecting off the mirrored floor, casting a glow over the entire room. Pit stared into the portal, smiling wistfully. He waved back at his goddess, and jumped through.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm not sure why I have to go with him. I'm just as effective up here as I am down there. I don't need to be carried around like a toolbox inside his neural lace."

Samus Aran, sitting in the cockpit of her ship, clad in her zero suit, gave a loud sigh. She looked up at the short blue hologram of her former commander, current AI, Adam Malkovich, standing on the dashboard, and replied.

"You do have to go with him. There's signal-jamming equipment down there. We can't risk getting cut off, not on a mission of this duration." Adam frowned.

"The equipment is inactive. And John usually manages to complete all objectives before countermeasures can even be deployed." He glanced over her. "Samus, is there something you're not telling us?" Samus groaned. She should know better than to try and hide this sort of thing from Adam.

"Fine. I've got plans."

"Confidential plans that you can take care of over the space of four days, without leaving the ship, or our orbit around this planet, and which you are completely certain I won't find out about later by looking at your extranet history?" She snorted.

"Yes." Adam regarded her for a moment, then shrugged.

"Fair enough. We'll get out of your hair, then." He disappeared from his place over the projector, and another voice crackled over the intercom, this one deeper, distorted slightly through the radio of an armoured suit.

"Adam's in my head. Ready to drop." She tapped on the ship's controls for a moment, angling the ship precisely into the correct position.

"Trajectory is green, you are clear." She replied into the comm.

"Copy that. See you later, Samus." The voice said, and a notification flashed up that the airlock had opened. A second later, it closed again, the occupant having vacated. She pulled up a feed from the bottom of the screen, watching as the falling figure descended, rapidly becoming a ball of fire. Showoff.

She stretched out. Finally, those two were gone for a while! She glanced at the time. And not a moment too soon, as well. She'd been planning this bounty for two weeks, trying to time it perfectly so that she could spend a little bit of time with her... God, it still felt weird to say it. Boyfriend. From another dimension. With wings. Who looked like a teenager. But was actually almost two hundred.

It almost made her want to laugh, she realised as she got up, walking to her personal quarters. Her life was pretty absurd, she had to admit that. But this definitely took the cake.

She looked in her mirror, wrinkling her nose. Did she look okay? He'd be arriving any minute no-

A slight tremor rocked through the ship, and a bright blue glow filtered under the door to her quarters. She smiled. That would be Pit. She quickly straightened her hair, and opened the door.

She stepped out into the cockpit, an involuntary smile alighting her features. Pit was right there, wearing his trademark tunic, fluffy white wings bent behind him, a cloth bag in one hand. He had his back to her, looking out through the windshield over the starry blackness of space. That gave her an idea.

Moving silently, masking every noise she could, and without bothering to suppress her evil smile, she edged closer and closer to him. He didn't look back, still looking over the stars. He put the bag gently down, and began to turn...

She pounced. With a startled cry, he stumbled, slipping over under her weight despite his unnatural strength. They crashed to the ground, landing with her on top of him. He opened his eyes, instantly recognising his assailant, and a smile lit up his face too. He opened his mouth to speak, only to be silenced by her lips on his, which he instantly remembered he far preferred to talking.

Watching through her viewing fountain, Palutena blushed and looked away. Unfortunately, it was all-seeing, so it didn't really help. She'd... Leave them alone for a little while.

Back in the cockpit, the two disconnected, smiling like idiots.

"Miss me?" Whispered Pit.

"What do you think?" Samus replied. She pulled away from him, helping him up, both the tiniest bit breathless. They smiled at each other a moment longer, just revelling in each other's presence for a little while, before Pit broached the hot topic. "So... Uh... You ready to go?" Samus ran through her checklist in her head. The boys gotten rid of, check. The ship in geosynchronous orbit with evasion and defence protocols active, check. One deliciously cute boyfriend, check.

"Yup, all ready." She smiled.

"Okay then! Lady Palutena, can you hear me?" Palutena jolted, having been absentmindedly leaning against her viewing fountain, playing with her hands since accidentally observing the 'incident'.

"Oh! Yes, yes, Pit, I can hear you." Samus heard her voice too, a strange sensation coming from inside her head. It was certainly odd, and not entirely welcome. Pit seemed perfectly at ease, though. She didn't know much about Palutena other than that she was a goddess, Pit served her, and she was a moderately strict mother figure. That, and she had a tendency towards mischief.

"Right! We're ready to come back now."

"Oh. Okay, just let me..." The nearest wall began to glow, a few patches of blue shifting on the surface like light over water. They quickly faded. "Oh. Hmm. It seems I can't keep the connection stable. Listen, the banquet is tomorrow. I'll try again later. You two have fun until then, okay?"

"Absolutely, Lady Palutena!"

"All right, then. See you later!" Pit smiled, and the voice went silent. He poked over to Samus, a hint of shyness on his face.

"Just you and me then." She smiled back.

"Just the way I like it." She lunged forward and swept him up for another kiss. A tiny thought popped up in her head that she was being a bit clingy, but she swiftly silenced it. Who cared? Not her. This was the perfect time to cut loose. Life had been quite eventful recently.

An indeterminate amount of time later, the two disengaged again. Pit seemed to remember something.

"Oh, right!" He picked up the bag again, proffering it to her. "Lady Palutena had this made for you." Samus took the bag, pleasantly curious. She reached in, and pulled out a handful of silky white cloth. "It's a dress." Pit explained. "For the banquet. Lady Palutena thought you might need it." Samus raised an eyebrow at the goddess' assumption. She did own civilian clothes, even if she rarely wore them. At one point she had even owned a cocktail dress when a particularly bothersome infiltration had called for it. She hadn't much enjoyed the experience, but she couldn't well show up to a banquet in the Zero Suit. She gave him a reassuring smile.

"Tell her thanks then. Will it fit, though?" Pit shrugged.

"I think it's magic? This sort of thing usually is." Samus put the corner of the garment back in the bag.

"I better go and try it on, then, shouldn't I? Come on." She plucked him by the front of his tunic and strode through the swiftly opening door.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Palutena strode around her hall, micromanaging the state of finely ordered chaos around her, clutching a clipboard tightly in her hands. Centurions flitted to and fro, moving tables, transporting decorations and cleaning the floor up after each other. The goddess was somewhat of a perfectionist, and having an event this big hosted in her very palace wasn't helping. Everything, down to the foliage on the pot plants, was being tweaked and adjusted. Palutena observed the process with all-seeing eyes, and let out a sigh. It was all going well. Nothing to worry about. She'd been stressing out about this for months on and off, trying to get it all perfect. She was practically a volcano of stress right now. What she needed was a long soak in the hot spring, and a little nap before she brought Pit and Samus back.

"Oh, helloooo there! Pretty Palutenaaaa?" A deep and rolling singsong voice carried through the air around her, and she felt her heart plummet. Oh no. Please no. Not now.

"...Hades." She eventually replied. She didn't turn or look to anybody, as the owner of the voice simply didn't have one.

Hades, supreme Lord of the Underworld, had recently been completely and utterly destroyed at the end of a bitter and bloody war. The one who struck the final blow had coincidentally been Pit. But total annihilation hadn't put any sort of dampener on Hades. He lived on as a bodiless voice, stripped of every fragment of his power. Until he was resurrected, the only thing he could do was observe the world. It was a testament to his incredible power that he even managed to retain a voice. Most Gods weren't even conscious whilst dead, let alone cognitive.

Unfortunately, Hades was somewhat of a character. Despite his immeasurable evil, he remained obnoxiously upbeat and nonchalant about everything around him, labelling people with insufferable nicknames, trilling and taunting at every opportunity. He was annoying before he died, but now with no army to command or souls to consume, he had made it his sworn mission to be more irritating than ever before.

"You don't sound very pleased to see me- Well, hear from me." He drawled. She could picture the smirk he would have been wearing if he still had a face to do so with. Unbearable.

"I was hoping to put it off until tomorrow..." She groaned. As a major god, Hades was obliged to attend the banquet, even in his current state. And he was all too happy to.

"How cold of you..." He said in mock offence. "Treating an old friend such as me like this. I only dropped by to see how you were doing."

"You always have an ulterior motive, Hades." There was a short pause as the god of the underworld considered this.

"True. I can't deny it. Yes, I came here to irritate you and Pitty. Happy?" Palutena grit her teeth.

"No, not really. You know, I'm quite busy, so would you kindly leave me alone?"

"Do you really think I got my job by being kind? Oh, well. As you wish. I'll go and look for Pitty-Pat then. Any idea where he is?" She didn't reply. The presence of Hades wafted around a bit. Then Palutena heard it pipe up from a little distance away:

"Oooh. Dimensional ripples. Pitty's gone quite a way away, hasn't he? I wonder why he's done that, hmm?" The irate goddess sighed.

"Hades, if you don't leave, I will exorcise you until tomorrow. Feel free to come and annoy us then, and you'll find out the answer to your question on the side." The voice huffed haughtily.

"Very well. I'll hold you to that. Ta ta, then!" And he left.

Palutena sighed, handing her clipboard to a nearby Centurion Strongarm. Hot spring. Nap. Now.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, is this a new ship? It's a lot bigger." Pit asked on the short trip to Samus' personal quarters.

"It is. The old one wasn't really doing the job any more. And I never liked that purple colour."

"Okay." They reached the door shortly -the ship wasn't that large- and Samus stepped inside, Pit hovering hesitantly at the door. Samus was going to be changing in there. He couldn't-

"Aren't you coming in?" He froze.

"U-uh... Well, you're- Um..." He stumbled over the words. Samus rolled her eyes.

"Just turn around, then, if it makes you uncomfortable." She pulled him into the room, and pulled out the dress. It was certainly impressive, she'd give it that. Not exactly her style, but still nice. She held it up in front of the mirror.

The garment was practically weightless, the white cloth floating around as she moved it. There were several tresses, perhaps a few patterns, and what looked like a sash to boot. She held it up against her body. Looked like a perfect fit. She glanced at Pit in the mirror, who was looking halfway between embarrassed and hopeful. She gave him a smile, and another slightly evil plan occurred to her. Reaching around to the back of her neck, she tugged the hidden zip on the back of her suit, making Pit instantly turn, a blush quickly rising to his cheeks. Phase one. She adjusted her grip, moving her arm as to pull it all the way down. Then, a sneaky tug sideways, making it jam. She pretended to struggle for a second, then spoke.

"Pit..." The tiniest trace of friskiness made its way into her tone, and the angel stiffened. She tried and failed to conceal a victorious smile. She loved teasing him. "Could you get the zip?

I think it's jammed." Stiffly, Pit turned around and took a hold of the zip, not making eye contact. He gave it a tug, and it remained stuck. Another, but still nothing. Then once more, and the zip freed itself, shooting down her back and showing a good bit of skin, as well as her bra strap, the latter clearly terrifying Pit. He turned away with lightning speed, even redder than before. Phase two.

She began to slip the suit off, leaving it in a pile at her feet. She then mused:

"I probably need fresh underwear." Off with the old, on with the new. Only the old happened to then be cast rather precisely over her shoulder so that it landed over a certain angel's head.

At first curious, he took it off his head to inspect it, only to drop it like a hot coal a split second later. He cried out.

"Gah! Samus! Knock it off!" She cackled in response and went to grab new underwear. Enough teasing... For now, anyway. Slipping the fresh garments on, she then took another look at the dress. There didn't seem to be any clear way of putting it on. The waist was too small to put over her head, and there weren't any fastenings either.

"Pit?" He visibly flinched. She snorted lightly. "I'm decent, don't worry. Do you know how I'm meant to put this on?" He turned, still red, and took the dress from her, trying to avoid looking directly at her. He turned it over, and ran a single finger down the back, right over where her spine would have been. A trail of glittering light followed his finger, and the garment split. He continued down the rest of the dress, splitting it completely. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Pretty neat, huh?" She nodded and put out her arms. He, still avoiding looking at her... front, brought up the arm holes, slipping them over her wrists. He pulled it over her shoulders, and ran a finger down her spine again to seal it up, cringing as he was forced to touch her backside, Samus smiling victoriously as he did. She felt the dress contract slightly, stopping just as the fit became skintight.

He took her hand and turned her back around to the mirror. Wow. She thought.

She hadn't noticed it before, but the dress was ever so slightly translucent in places, showing ghostly outlines of her legs under their covers, and the pink of her stomach. The fabric glittered, strips of silvery light running over the shoulder straps and down her back. Pit reached back into the bag and brought out a pair of long white gloves and shoes, offering them to her with a warm smile. She took them graciously, slipping both pairs on in front of the mirror.

There and then, she decided she looked damn good. But a second opinion couldn't hurt...

"So..." She turned to Pit and struck a pose, hands on hips, leg stuck out of the slit in the hem. "...How do I look?" Pit did nothing but gawk for a brief moment.

"Guh... Ah..." Samus rolled her eyes again. It really was too easy to get him like this. Still, he was cute when he was flustered.

"I'll take that as an 'utterly ravishing', then, shall I?" Pit grinned.

"That works."

**And there you have it for the first chapter! Hope you've liked it so far, but I hope you know that I haven't even started yet!**

**BTW, I didn't make the Hades thing up. He really did survive Daybreak. If you play Ch.25 of Kid Icarus Uprising, cycle through the credits until you see the "The End" page with a feather, and just wait, he'll start talking. It's pretty cool.**

**No prizes for spotting the reference to Resurrection. None at all. **

**And, just so you know, next chapter will contain one of the two things in this fic that make it an M. I'll leave that to your imaginations for now, though.**

**Anyway, see you in an undisclosed and probably quite long period of time!**


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